DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Asia Food Challenge Dinner

Mr Lim Boon Heng,
Chairman, Temasek Holdings,

Mr Ong Chao Choon,
Deputy Chairman, PWC,

Ms Diane Boogaard,
CEO, Rabobank Asia,

Ladies and gentlemen,  

Thank you for inviting me to the Asia Food Challenge Dinner this evening.

To participants of the Asia Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Week, I hope you had a great start to the conference today. 

To our guests from overseas, a very warm welcome to Singapore!

As I am standing between you and dinner, I will keep my speech brief as I serve you some pre-dinner food for thought.

Like the menu before us tonight, I will share my rendition of a three-course meal – with an appetiser, main course and dessert.

Appetiser: Growing Appetite for Food

Let me begin with the appetiser – the growing global appetite for food. Global demand for food is rising.

Today, more than 800 million people live in hunger¹, and as Chairman Lim pointed out, our planet will need to accommodate an additional 2 billion people by 2050. 

But the growth of global food supply is not keeping up. In fact, it is slowing down.

Climate change has resulted in warmer temperatures and more erratic weather patterns.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that crop yield might drop by up to 25% by 2050. 

The world has also lost a third of its arable land in the last forty years², as a result of unsustainable industrial practices.

The imbalance between the global demand for food and our food supply is widening.

This is why “zero hunger” has been identified as one of the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals, calling on the global community to redouble our efforts to meet our present and future food needs, in a sustainable way.

The future of food in Asia is therefore challenging but also exciting because of the growing potential and opportunities.

The Asian market is expanding very quickly.

It is already by far the most populous continent today, with more than half the world’s population, and its population is projected to continue growing, with close to 5 billion people by 2030³.

There is also a rising middle class, as the global economic weight shifts towards Asia.

Asia is expected to be home to 65% of the world’s middle class by 2030⁴, and with greater purchasing power, consumption will grow.

In fact, demand for meat and seafood in Asia is projected to grow by more than 30% by 2030⁵.

But there is more we can do on the supply side.

More than 300 million smallholder farmers are in Asia⁶, many of whom rely on subsistence farming.

Hence there is a lot of potential to improve crop yield, quality and productivity in these farms, and through that, we can improve the lives of these farmers and their families, and bring more food to the consumers.   

This is why investors are optimistic about the potential of the agri-food industry in Asia.

Asia is projected to double its total spend on food over the next decade.

From US 4 trillion dollars today, to US 8 trillion dollars by 2030⁷.

On this note, I am very happy to see that PwC, Rabobank and Temasek have come together to publish the Asia Food Challenge report.

This is a timely and thought-provoking report that discusses ways we can work together, to close the food and nutrition gap in Asia.

We can do so by attracting more investments and expertise to this region, and introducing innovation across the agri-food supply chain.

This is a good start to help us realise the full potential of the agri-food industry in Asia.

Main Course: Technology and Innovation are the Mainstay

This brings me to the main course – How do we address the food challenge?

As Chairman Lim mentioned, technology and innovation are central to this. Let me approach this from farm to table.

At the farm, technology can improve crop yield and nutritional quality.

Big Data and the Internet of Things can transform food production and farm management.

Sensors can help with soil monitoring, detect air and water quality, and examine other variables that affect crop yield.

Drones can collect weather information and monitor crop health, to help predict and prevent crop failures.

Beyond improving crop yield, technology can also improve the quality of crops. The agri-biotechnology can be applied to increase the nutritional value of food.

An example is Eatobe, a local food biotechnology start-up, which uses fermentation and enzyme technologies to process and transform grains, nuts and seeds, making them easier for the body to digest and absorb the nutrients. 

While technology can result in improvements at the farm, many smallholder farmers in the region cannot easily access finance and technology.

I am glad that companies have stepped in to improve finance and capital for these farmers.

One example is FarmTrek – I visited them recently at their booth at the recent Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) conference.

FarmTrek uses blockchain technology to help smallholder cattle farmers finance their capital loans.

As the food produce moves out of the farm, technology can improve how they are being transported and stored.

Cold chain technology allows us to ship food in containers, while remotely monitoring and optimising temperature and humidity.

This ensures freshness, facilitates the ripening of fruits and vegetables while in transit, and reduces food wastage.

Beyond cold chain, technology improves traceability of the foods – providing greater assurance on their origins, and that these foods were sustainably produced.

More can also be done to reduce food waste along the supply chain – when we waste food, we also waste the resources used to grow the food.

In Singapore alone, more than 750,000 tonnes of food waste was generated last year.

I am glad that many of our people, especially our youths, have taken up the call to work towards “zero waste”.

One example is Ugly Food, which turns blemished but edible fruits and vegetables into tasty fruit juices and sorbet popsicles.

Finally, besides yield and nutrition, the food at the table must also taste good, and technology and innovation can come in too.

Alternative proteins is a good example of good tasting food that is grown much more sustainably.

I tried the Impossible Burger recently, and it does taste like a real beef burger!

And as Chairman Lim pointed out, each Impossible meat patty is created using 87% less water, 96% less land and 90% fewer greenhouse emissions. 

Local start-up Shiok Meats has also produced cell-based shrimp, and has plans to develop lab-grown lobster and crab meat.

With more research and development (R&D), this could take our chilli crabs to the next level!

A*STAR researchers are also studying the use of micro-organisms to sustainably produce flavour and fragrance compounds, such as lycopene, which gives tomatoes its red colour, and nonadienal, which smells like cucumbers.

These compounds enhance the look and smell of the food we eat.

So besides farm to table, we are also getting food from lab to table!

The opportunities in agri-food technology are therefore tremendous, and I am glad that companies around the world are investing significantly.

In 2018 alone, agri-food technology start-ups raised nearly 17 billion US dollars globally, a 40% increase over the previous year⁸. And by making technology and innovation the mainstay in the food industry, we can feed more people with healthier and tastier food, without creating greater stress to the environment.

Dessert: Sweet Spot to Turn Innovation into Fruition

Now on to dessert – How do we find the sweet spot to turn our innovation into fruition, in ways that benefit the lives of people in the region?

In Singapore, our land and resource constraints have created many opportunities for new technology and innovation.

We are now growing food that we could not grow before.

Strawberries, a temperate fruit, can now be grown in Singapore all year round, in a climate-controlled environment.

We are growing food in unconventional places, such as in vacant rooftops of multi-storey carparks and under viaducts.

We are growing food at a much higher intensity. 

A good example is Apollo Aquaculture, which is building a highly automated eight-story fish farm that can significantly increase its annual output of fish within a small footprint.

On top of this, we are growing more with less, in a sustainable way

Using less energy, less water, and generating less waste.

I have met some of our urban farmers on a number of occasions, including at my community events. 

I am most struck by their passion for farming, and their creativity in overcoming the many constraints posed by our urban environment.

Taken together, these efforts will take us a step closer to realising our 30 by 30 goal – to produce 30% of our nutritional needs locally by 2030.

As we continue to build our food resilience, we can also turn our experience and expertise into an economic strength.

Singapore offers a good base for regional companies going global, and global companies coming into the region.

With our cultural diversity and range of cuisines, we can be a centre for companies to better understand the taste preferences of Asians.

We also offer a strong research and innovation eco-system for companies to incubate and testbed new ideas.

Singapore is doing more to strengthen our research and innovation eco-system.

As part of the Singapore Food Story, the Singapore Food Authority and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) are jointly investing 144 million dollars in food research under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan.

The new Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation, announced earlier today, will bring together our food and agri-technology research capabilities under one roof.

The Agri-Food Innovation Park in Sungei Kadut will bring together innovators in urban agriculture and aquaculture to reap potential synergies.

We will also continue to attract funding and expertise to grow agri-food technology start-ups in Singapore.

By working together, Singapore can grow from a food paradise, into an agri-food node for Asia and the world.

Conclusion

The Asia food story is only beginning. For this menu to translate into dinner on the table, we will need to work together – from farmers and industry players, to researchers, venture capitalists and governments.

Countries in Southeast Asia and the region must also work together, building on the many existing areas of collaboration.

And as Mr Lim mentioned earlier, even in areas like food security, food safety and regulatory issues that we need to deal with.

While tonight’s focus is on Asia, we must also remember that our food challenge is a global one.

The discussions on technology and innovation by all of you at this forum can be applied or adapted to other parts of the world.

Even as we seek to harness the full potential of the agri-food industry in Asia, we must also contribute to meet the global food needs in a sustainable way so that we can each do our part towards achieving “zero hunger” in the world.

Singapore stands ready to work with you, to partner you, to contribute to regional and global food security; and to turn opportunities into delectable possibilities.

Bon appetit!  

[1] The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organisation (WHO).

[2] The University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures’ Briefing Note titled “A sustainable model for intensive agriculture”, Dec 2015.

[3] United Nations’ World Population Prospects 2019.

[4] Global Economic Development at Brookings: The Unprecedented Expansion of the Global Middle Class

[5] Asia Research and Engagement’s report on “Charting Asia’s Protein Journey”, Sept 2018.

[6] Stockholm Environment Institute’s article by Senior Research Fellow Clemens Grunbuhel, with contributions from CEO of Asia Bio Business Andrew Powell titled “How investing in smallholder farms is investing in our society”, March 2019.

[7] Asia Food Challenge Report by PwC, Rabobank and Temasek, Nov 2019.

[8] AgFunder AgriFood Tech Investing Report 2018.

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